Monthly Archives: February 2018

If you’ve ever wondered what all those leads and sticky dots were doing when placed over a patient in a hospital or in a film then they were probably having their heart monitored. And by monitored, they were probably having some form of ECG (Electrocardiogram . . . with a C, for Cardio. Not EKG, like how the septics spell. ECG!).

ECG’s are a fantastic system used in lots of hospital and pre-hospital environments to help determine cardiological issues and help us determine the correct course of treatment and outcome for the patient.

They measure the electrical output of the heart and we do this by strategically placing several (10 in the UK) sticky dots attached to leads, over the patient’s chest and limbs. And, after the patient remains still, we gain a readout from the Lifepak machine that gives us 12 different views of the heart. This is when we, the clinicians, pretend to know what we’re looking at.

So below, to help anyone who might be in the remote bit interested, I’ve put together a quick Top 10 Do’s and Don’ts of how to ECG . . .

I did an observer shift in Control a while back. I wanted to watch and listen to how calls come in, got triaged, allocated and then managed.

So, sitting with Laffieres*, a Clinical Team Leader, I was able to listen in to a patient call back. They had rung 999 feeling faint and had won themself an Amber response that could see her waiting a long while for an ambulance. London were holding a ridiculous amount of calls and, as usual, only had a finite amount of ambulances to send. So, it was Laffieres’ job to ring the patient back and re-check their clinical status to see if anything had changed and to see if there were any ‘alternatives’ that could be used to help the patient. This was all done using the Manchester Triage System, a quick, more concise generalised system to help clinicians triage a patient’s needs over the phone.

After a short conversation Laffieres concluded the patient did not need an ambulance at all. And, upon receiving the news that they were no longer going to be getting one, the patient’s demeanour changed. One second their voice had been woeful and demure, the next it was harsh, cruel and direct.

A neighbour let us in to the patient’s flat and led us to where she was lying on the kitchen floor. The poor old girl had simply fallen and not been able to get up, and had subsequently been lying for over six hours.

Now, I don’t have much of a sense of smell. I put this down to constant exposure to horrible smells over time. And thus, when we stepped into the kitchen, the smell of faeces that hit me was like a ton of bricks to my senses.

My god! I thought. That really MUST smell bad if I can smell it.

And to make matters worse – that sneaking, creeping, terrible feeling of awareness started prickling at the back of my neck . . . .